Cereipo is native Mexico, Central America, Hispaniola, Trinidad, Colombia, and Venezuela. It reaches a height of 30 feet, with one or more trunks 6 or more inches in diameter. The leaves are up to 8 inches long and have up to nineteen leaflets, the largest 1.5 inches long. Flowers are about five-eighths of an inch long and appear in showy terminal erect racemes about 4 inches long. Fruits are flat pods, up to 2.5 inches long, with a seed near the apex and a wing extending to the base. It flowers mostly during summer and fruits mature mainly during fall. The generic name means with many or numberless seeds. The species name means with a tendency to grow as a shrub.

The photographed tree is east of the Department of Band and Orchestra, and is the only member of the species in the campus.